Faa Teams Will Run Airline Inspections

December 19, 1985|By United Press International

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration will set up special teams to conduct regularly scheduled inspections next year of major airlines flying in the United States, an agency official said Wednesday.

Anthony Broderick, FAA's associate administrator for flight standards, said the establishment of teams is not an indication that there are newly found problems with the airlines' operation and maintenance practices.

''These inspections we are talking about now are going on all the time,'' Broderick said. ''It's just efficiency. There is nothing new in the concept of doing these inspections.''

Agency spokesman John Leyden said the team method already has been introduced in inpections under way at Eastern Airlines.

At the close of 1985, the worst year for air disasters in history, Broderick said ''there is no one thing that we have learned that gives us concern'' about major airlines' safety practices.

Broderick said the agency decided to establish the teams due to the crush of manpower needed to inspect a major airline's operations.

During such projects, Broderick said, 30 FAA inspectors usually work on just one airline for four to six weeks, and the team inspection approach will be used on 12 leading airlines.

Broderick said the hope is that with the team approach the FAA is setting up a program ''so we are not tripping over each other.''

He said the team inspections differ significantly from the national safety inspections conducted on all airlines last year.